Explosively anchored buoy



May 22, 1962 w. G. SQUIRES, JR

EXPLOSIVELY ANCHORED BUOY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 18, 1961 FIG.2.

INVENTOR WALTER e. SQUIRES, JR.

ATTORNEYS FIG. la.

May 22, 1962 w. G. SQUiRES, JR

EXPLOSIVELY ANCHORED BUOY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 18, 1961 FIGJD.

INVENTOR WALTER G. SQUIRES, JR.

ATTORNEY 3,035,285 Patented May 22, 1962 3,035,285 EXPLOSIVELY ANCHORED BUOY Walter G. Squires, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla, assignor to the United Statesof America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy Filed Sept. 18, 1961, Ser. No. 139,008

5 Claims. (Cl. 9-9) (Granted under Title 35, U8. Code (1952), see. 266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes Without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

The present invention relates to buoys and, more particularly, to buoys which may be considered expendable in that they are employed as temporary markers for indicating, at the surface, a certain position in a body of water or for marking a navigation pattern.

The buoy of the present invention will probably find its greatest use in the type of buoying for which standard Navy dan buoys are presently employed. Such uses include the marking of swept paths in minesweeping operations and for marking a particular position in a body of water such as the location of an object to be salvaged or removed, e.g., a ground mine or a sunken vessel. One highly desirable feature in such buoys is a lightweight anchoring means which does not drag. Also, it is frequently desirable to have a buoy which will submerge to the bottom of a body of water and remain there for a predetermined period of time and thereafter automatically rise to the surface to mark a position in the body of water. An example of this latter use is a vessel-towing minesweeping gear which can drop the buoys overboard and the buoys will not surface until after the sweep gear has passed overhead, thereby enabling the vessel to mark its own swept path.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved marker buoy.

Another object of the invention is the provision of submersible buoys having self-contained means for causing the buoy to surface after a predetermined period of submersion.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a buoy which will firmly anchor itself when it impacts the bottom of a body of water.

A buoy embodying certain features of the invention may include a flotation section and an anchor section releasably secured together and adapted, when placed in a body of water, to submerge to the bottom and thereafter release the flotation section to permit it to rise to the surface, and having in the anchor section an anchor which is explosively driven into the bottom either in response to impact with the bottom or at the expiration of a predetermined period of time. Also, the flotation section is preferably nonbuoyant but is automatically rendered buoyant as a result of the anchor being driven into the bottom.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof when read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1a is a sectional view of the flotation section of a buoy embodying the invention;

FIG. 1b is a sectional view of the anchor section of the buoy shown in FIG. 1a; and

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the buoy in extended, operative position.

An anchor buoy incorporating the invention is shown in FIGS. la and 1b as comprising a buoy and reel housing 10 and an anchor mechanism housing 11. The anchor housing 11 is closed at its lower end by a barrel-containing member 12 and at its upper end by a mounting plate 13. The barrel in the end member 12 is adapted to receive an anchor member 14 provided with an explosive cartridge 15 and retained in the barrel by a shear pin 16. A length of anchor cable 17 of suificient length to accommodate the depth at which the anchor 14 is driven when the explosive cartridge 15 is fired is suitably secured to the barrelcontaining member 12 and to the anchor 14. The barrelcontaining member 12 is formed to provide a breech block having a passageway 18 axial-1y alined with the cartridge 15 and with a firing tube 19 in which is slidably mounted a firing pin 21 having a point 22 adapted to enter the passageway 18 to fire the cartridge 15. The firing pin 21 is biased away from its firing position in the passageway 18 by a spring 23 under compression. A pin 24 carried by the firing pin 21 extends through a slot 25 in the wall of the firing tube 19 to limit the upward movement of the pin 21 by the action of the spring 23 and to permit firing movement of the pin 21 when the firing mechanism is actuated as now to be described. A plunger 26 extending through the top mounting plate 13 downwardly into the upper end of the firing tube 19 has a shoulder 27 between which and the mounting plate 13 a main firing spring 28 is held under compression. When otherwise unrestrained, the spring 28 presses the shoulder 27 against the top of the firing tube 19 and when the plunger 26 is in the cocked position shown in FIG. lb, it opens apertures 29 to permit flooding of the firing tube 19 between the ends of the plunger 26 and the firing pin 21 to provide a water piston to transmit the movement of the plunger 26 to the firing pin 21, the arrangement being such that when it is an air piston there is insufficient motion transmitted from the plunger 26 to the firing pin 21 to complete a firing cycle as is well known. A bell crank lever mounted for rocking movement on a pivot 31 carried by a bracket 32 has a cooking arm 33 and a trigger arm 34. In cocked position, the end of the cocking arm 33, which may be notched, holds the shoulder 27 against the force of the compressed spring 28. The trigger arm 34 of the bell crank is provided with two arcuate slots 35 and 36 through which pins 37 and 38 extend from, respectively, an impact firing rod 39 and a time-delay firing rod 40. It will be evident that, when the impact firing rod 39 strikes against a relatively solid surface, such as the ocean floor, it will rotate the trigger arm 34 clockwise to move the cocking arm 33 out of engagement with the shoulder 27 to permit the spring 28 to force the plunger 26 downward to cause the cartridge 15 to fire, the slot 36 constituting a lossmotion connection between the arm 34 and the pin 38. The time-delay firing rod 40 is provided at its distal end with a piston 41 which is held in the position shown in FIG. 1b against the compression of a spring 42 in a cylinder 43 by a closure plug 44 with an intervening water soluble plug 45 of known type which, depending upon its composition, will dissolve in water ina relatively short time, say from 2 to 10 minutes or longer if desired. It will be evident that, in the event the impact firing rod 39 fails to function or is purposely disabled (as by removal),

when the soluble plug 45 is dissolved the spring 42 will force the piston 41 against the closure plug 44 to impart a firing movement to the trigger arm 34. The housing 11 is provided with openings 46, or their equivalent, to be sure that the housing 11 will be free-flooded when immersed in water.

The buoy and reel housing is preferably equal in diameter to the anchor mechanism housing 11 and is releasably attached thereto by a plurality of latch arms 47 (only one is shown) adapted to be moved into engagement with an internal shoulder 48 in the lower end of the housing 10 by the upper end of the plunger 26 when it is moved to the cocked position shown. This upper end of the plunger 26 may be provided with a threaded member 49 for adjusting the effective length of the plunger 26 to insure the desired latching movement of the arms 47. Rotatably mounted between a lower bulkhead 51 and an upper bulkhead 52 in the housing 10 is a flanged reel 53 upon which is wound the desired length of mooring line 54, the free end of which is passed through an eyebolt guide 55, a fairlead 56 in the bulkhead 51 and secured to the mounting plate 13 as by a screw 57. As will be pointed out. below, it is desirable to restrain the reel 53 from paying out line when subjected to less than a preselected hydrostatic pressure. Any suitable arrangement may be employed to perform this desired function, the one here illustrated being similar to that disclosed in Patent No. 2,830,309 to Lawson. In this arrangement, a stop pin 58 is supported by and projects from a flexible diaphragm 59 through an opening 60 in the upper bulkhead 52 and in alinement (circumferentially) with at least one aperture 61 in a flange of the reel 53.. The diaphragm 59 is exposed on its pin-projecting side to ambient conditions and on its other side to a variable volume compartment 62, which may be gas-filled or preferably partially evacuated to lower its sensitivity to temperature changes. The diaphragm 59 has sufficient resilience to hold the pin 60 in the aperture 61 against the pressure on the diaphragm 59 at the depth it rides in the water when the buoy housing 10 is held at the surface as hereinafter described. Felt washers 63 may be secured to the bulkheads 51 and 52 in position to contact the flanges of the reel 53 so as to provide sufficient friction to prevent overrunning of the reel 53.

The flotation member of the buoy comprises a collapsible inflatable member 64, such as a balloon, having its neck secured to the walls of a pressure cartridge 65 which introduces an inflating medium into the balloon 64 when the pressure cartridge is ruptured as by a tack 66 carried by a resilient cap 67 enclosing the sealed end of the pressure cartridge 65. The pressure cartridge 65 is fixedly mounted axially of the housing 10 in a tubular socket 68 secured to the upper face of the bulkhead 52. The upper open end of the housing 10 is provided with an end block 69 having a friction fit with the housing 10 so as to permit longitudinal movement of the cap 69 to push the tack 66 through the seal of the cartridge 65 thereby inflating the balloon 64 through apertures 70 in the cap 67. As the balloon 64 inflates, it forces the end block out of the housing 10. The housing 10 is provided with an aperture 71 just above the bulkhead 52 to permit the entry of water and to trap air between it and the end block 69 to thereby assure that the assembled buoy will sink through the water with its anchor 14 pointed down and, if the cartridge does not fire upon contact with the bottom, the buoy will remain in an upright position.

When the buoy assembly is dropped into the sea, at a position to be marked, it sinks to the bottom orienting itself with its anchor 14 down. On impact with the bottom, the firing rod 39 is pushed upward to rotate the cocking arm 33 out of engagement with the shoulder 27 whereupon the plunger 26 is forced downward by the spring 28 to drive the firing pin 22 into the cartridge 15, the firing of which drives the anchor 14 into the bottom. The recoil resulting from the firing of the cartridge 15 is transmitted through the housings 11 and 10 to the pressure cartridge 65 which drives the gas cartridge 65 against the tack 66 which is held relatively stationary by the end block 69 which, due to its resistance to rapid upward movement through the water, slides downwardly in the housing 10. The end block 69 is forced out by the inflation of the balloon 64 which starts to rise to the surface carrying with it the housing 10, the latches 47 holding the housings 10 and 11 together having been released by the downward movement of the plunger 26. The mooring line 54 unwinds from the reel 53 until the inflated balloon 64 neals the surface of the water where the reduction of hydrostatic pressure causes the reel to be locked by insertion of the pin 60 into the reel flange aperture 61 thereby effeotively preventing the unreeling of any more line. The depth at which the reel 53 is locked is chosen to approximate the slack left in the anchor cable 17 after the anchor has penetrated the bottom so that the final ascent of the balloon 64 will lift the housing 11 off the ocean floor as indicated in FIG. 2.

In the foregoing example of the operation of the buoy, it will be evident that if the firing rod 39 fails to fire the anchor for any reason, such as too soft a bottom, the soluble plug 45 will dissolve to permit firing movement of the time-delay firing rod 40. When it is desired, as in a minesweeping operation, that the buoy remain on the bottom for a preselected period of time before rising to the surface to mark its position, the impact firing rod 39 is omitted, and the setting of the ancor is controlled by a time-delay device such as the soluble plug 45.

While, for the purpose of disclosing the invention, a preferred embodiment thereof has been disclosed in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto but is of the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A buoy for marking a preselected position in a body of water comprising a first housing containing an anchoring mechanism including an anchor, an anchor cable connecting the anchor to the housing, an explosive charge for embedding the anchor in the bottom of a body of water and means operative to explode said charge, a second housing containing a collapsed inflatable flotation member, a reel, a length of mooring line stored on the reel and having its free end secure-d to the first housing, means responsive to recoil from the explosion of said charge for inflating said flotation member, and means attaching the first housing to the second housing adapted to be released by the operation of said charge exploding means.

2. A buoy in accordance with claim 1 wherein the first housing is free-flooding, and the portion of the second housing remote from said attaching means is adapted to entrap air when the buoy is placed in water with said second housing uppermost so that the buoy submerges to the bottom with said first housing leading.

3. A buoy in accordance with claim 1 wherein the means operative to explode said charge comprises a firing rod positioned to be the first portion of the buoy to contact the bottom, a spring-loaded plunger movable against the force of the spring to a cocked position and movable by the spring when released from cocked position to fire said charge, and a part engaging said plunger to hold it in cocked position and arranged to be moved from its engagement with said plunger by the firing rod impacting the bottom.

4. A buoy in accordance with claim 1 wherein the means operative to explode said charge comprises a springloaded plunger movable against the force of the spring to a cocked position and movable by the spring when released from cocked position to fire said charge, means movable to but biased from a position where said plunger is held in cocked position, and a water soluble plug positioned to. overcome the bias of said movable means until said plug dissolves, the solubility of said plug being such I o n n 6 that it remains intact at least until the buoy submerges leasing the flotation section from the anchor section, and

to the bottom. a firing rod movable upon impact with the bottom to 5. In a marker buoy havmg a flotation section and an actuate i fi i d releasing means,

anchor section treleasab-ly secured together and adapted when placed in a body of water to submerge to the bottom 5 R f r Cited in the fil f h patent and thereafter release the flotation section which rises to the surface, means for anchoring the anchor section and UNITED STATES PATENTS for releasing the flotation section comprising an anchor, 2,752,615 Parker July 3, 1956 an anchor cable connecting the anchor to the anchor sec- 2,825,803 Newbrough Man 4 1958 tion, an explosive charge for embedding the anchor in the 10 2,993,461

F '1 J l 25, 1961 bottom, means for firing the explosive charge and for re- 61 at u y 

